


Rían at the Hill of Slain

by Zdenka



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Poetry, Tumblr: legendariumladiesapril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 04:38:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12697521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: Dying on Haudh-en-Ndengin, Rían has a prophetic vision and sings one last song of defiance.





	Rían at the Hill of Slain

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very late fill for two different challenges from back in April, not posted until now because I couldn't stop fiddling with it. The lotr_community challenge for April 2017, Ode to Arda, was to write an ode about "any aspect of Arda: nature, characters, history, special places or events, etc." incorporating a provided pair of rhyming words, though they didn't have to rhyme in the poem. My word pair was sing/wing.
> 
> This was also inspired by the Legendarium Ladies April [poetry prompt for April 10th](http://legendariumladiesapril.tumblr.com/post/159410950247/legendarium-ladies-april-prompts-for-april-10), “Sappho’s Reply” by Rita Mae Brown.
> 
> The meter and rhyme scheme, though not the style, are based on the odes of John Keats.

The North Wind wildly blew across the land,  
destroying humble hearth and royal tower.  
Bent to the ground, I sheltered in my hand  
a single blade of grass, a single flower.  
When poisoned darkness swallowed up the Light,  
the Valar from the wounds of Morgoth’s spear  
saved but a single fruit, a single flower.  
On wings uplifted, glorious and bright  
they shone on high, and Morgoth’s heart knew fear;  
the Sun and Moon still stand beyond his power.

This flower that I saved beneath my hands,  
not even Morgoth with his iron bars  
shall fence it in; its roots will touch the sands  
of the Great Sea, its leaves will brush the stars.  
Though now my strength is spent, though soon my breath  
will falter into silence, while the light  
still lingers on this hill whereunder lies  
my lord with all his men in sleep of death,  
ere yet I go to him, here with the sight  
of death I sing to you: a star will rise.

**Author's Note:**

> “here with the sight / of death I sing to you: a star will rise.” - From Huor’s words to Turgon at Nirnaeth Arnoediad: “This I say to you, lord, with the eyes of death: though we part here for ever, and I shall not look on your white walls again, from you and from me a new star shall arise.” ( _The Silmarillion_ , “Of the Fifth Battle”) And of course Eärendil is Rían’s grandson as well as Huor’s.


End file.
